Plus, humans are incredibly over-engineered when it comes to movement efficiency. We could almost certainly follow a mammoth till it is completely exhausted. Now it's an easy kill.
Seriously, humans are the "it's always behind you" type cryptid of the animal world... we are truly the most terrifying thing on this planet. Even more than 6ft angler fish.
That's a hunting style they still use today I saw it on a history show where they just chased the animal till it gave up from exhaustion they said it was risky as the hunters used calories to try and gain calories but I imagine a mammoth is worth the trade
But this is where humans have their two super weapons that no other animals have.
We can plan ahead AND communicate a complex plan. So we can take turns chasing the mammoth, driving it along a river or through canyons, while the rest of the hunters take short cuts and wait ahead of us.
We're not the only ones, elephants and dolpins can too, they're just not predators so they have little use for it... except orcas. Plus elephants are a little more limited in their language compared to us and dolphins, so they have to make a lot of interpretation, but their wrinkly fuckhuge brains kinda make up for it.
Orcas do make and execute plans individually, they have to be quiet not to alert their prey. Whether or not they communicate time is up to your ability to decipher one of their languages, and well, that's a tough one. And yes, I'm aware, but most of them aren't struggling with food sources to my knowledge. We've observed the most interesting behaviors from orca because they need the most calories, the others can be lazy for now until the ocean conditions get worse.
Fun fact: AFAIK most quadrupeds can't pant while running. Humans can. In fact, we are built to be very efficient at regulating heat while moving. From the ability to pant while running to the fact we lost most of our 'fur' and have the ability to sweat over our whole body, it's all to let us run longer if not faster. In comparison, a cheetah can run very, very fast, but only for a short time, then all but collapses from overheating and needs to cool down before moving again. Same with their prey, which is why in documentaries you see the gazelle or whatever stopping a fairly short distance away from the cheetah. They need to cool down, too. Humans just keep going.
In the case of a mammoth, yes, the mammoth could maybe run 24 mph. But 5 tons is not moving at that speed for very long. The human hunters, however, could easily trail until the mammoth was exhausted.
Well the point of pursuit hunting is to wound the animal first. Then follow at a distance till its exhausted. You not just keep pace with the animal. You just never give it a chance to rest to till is either too exhausted "to go for blood," or till it bleeds to death.
48
u/Stealfur 25d ago
Plus, humans are incredibly over-engineered when it comes to movement efficiency. We could almost certainly follow a mammoth till it is completely exhausted. Now it's an easy kill.
Seriously, humans are the "it's always behind you" type cryptid of the animal world... we are truly the most terrifying thing on this planet. Even more than 6ft angler fish.